Top 5 Things You Should Look For When Choosing A New Neighborhood

To find the perfect house, you have to find the perfect neighborhood. Here are ten things to look out for when choosing a new neighborhood.

Rising Home Prices: Consider a place where home values are increasing at a faster rate than the national average of 6.9%.

Growing Household Incomes: When homeowners earn money, they can afford to make more renovations to their house which, in turn, boosts home prices for the neighborhood as a whole. You can use Census data to find the median household income in a prospective neighborhood. Keep in mind the median household income in the United States was $56,516 in 2015, up 5.2% from 2014, the Census reports.

Diversity: Fair Housing laws rescript real estate agents from mentioning a neighborhood’s demographics but you do a quick Google search if you’re interested in learning about local cultural centers, places of worship, and so on.

Great Schools: Roughly 91% of prospective homebuyers said that school boundaries were important in their search. Check out Greatschools.org for a comprehensive look at school districts, their college admission rates, average SAT scores, and more.

Close-Knit Community: Don’t be afraid to visit local grocery stores, parks, or coffee shops to get a sense of the community’s residents, how they interact, and to ask them about their experiences living there.

To learn about five other important things to look for, check out the original article on Forbes.com. And as always, if you have any real estate related questions, don’t hesitate to contact me today!